Thibaut Meurisse Quotes

Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality, by understanding that we don’t need people.

Your attitude towards life influences your happiness, not what happens to you.

With practice, you learn to distance yourself from thoughts, reducing their power and their impact.

Focus acts like an ax. If you try to cut down a tree by hitting it in thousands of different spots, you’ll never succeed. But when you focus and hit the same spot over and over, you can cut down even the biggest tree. With laser-sharp focus you can achieve almost anything you desire.

The mind in its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven. ​— ​John Milton, poet.

Trick #3—excitement is not the same thing as fulfillment

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone. ​— ​Pablo Picasso

Without fear, there is no courage. As you face fear on a regular basis, you cultivate courage and turn it into a habit.

What it means is that, in the long run, external events have minimal impact on your level of happiness.

Studies have shown that exercising can treat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressants.

Once you realize you don’t actually need anyone, you can start enjoying people’s company. You can see them as they really are rather than trying to get something from them.

What people think of you is none of your business

Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality, by understanding that we don’t need people. ​— ​Anthony de Mello

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

Non-clinical depression occurs when you’re not where you want to be in life, you have lost any hope to ever be, and can’t accept it.

Here’s my point. The world is working against you. There will always be someone trying to grab your attention. As such, you have two choices. You can protect your focus by building habits and systems, or you can remain unprepared and let anyone distract you from the important things you should be doing with your time.

Extraordinary people have extraordinary habits, while average people have average habits.

Move out of your comfort zone

You’re not responsible for people’s thoughts. In fact, what people think of you is none of your business. Your job is to express your personality the best way you can while having the purest intent possible. In short, your responsibility is to do your best to be your true self. Then, people may or may not like you, and either way is fine. Remember, the most influential people such as presidents and statesmen and women are often hated by millions.

according to Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness, fifty percent of our happiness is determined by genetics, forty percent by internal factors, and only ten percent by external factors. These external factors include such things as whether we’re single or married, rich or poor, and similar social influences.

Resentment often builds up when you fail to communicate effectively with the people you resent. That is, when you didn’t tell them you felt hurt, or didn’t communicate your needs and wants, assuming they would naturally cater to them. It can also grow when you did express your feelings but can’t let go of them and forgive.

can’t be happy unless *insert your answer(s)*: You don’t need to have the perfect life to be happy. Happiness is a choice you need to make every day. You must practice it since, as we’ve seen before, external factors won’t significantly affect your happiness.

We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.

It's what you do every day that counts. Eating seven apples on Sunday won't keep the doctor away!

Dopamine and constant stimulation can impair your ability to think long term

the way you interpret emotions, as well as the blame game you engage in, creates suffering, not the emotions themselves.

Bless your problems: Thank your problems. Understand they are here for a reason and will serve you in some way.

Men imagine that thought can be kept secret, but it cannot; it rapidly crystallizes into habit, and habit solidifies into circumstance.

Change your emotional state Distract yourself: An emotion is only as strong as you allow it to be. Whenever you experience a negative feeling, instead of focusing on it, get busy right away. If you’re angry about something, cross something off your to-do list. If possible, do something that requires your full attention. Interrupt: Do something silly or unusual to break the pattern. Shout, do a silly dance or speak with a strange voice. Move: Stand up, go for a walk, do push-ups, dance, or use a power posture. By changing your physiology, you can change the way you feel. Listen to music: Listening to your favorite music may shift your emotional state. Shout: Talk to yourself with a loud and authoritarian voice and give yourself a pep talk. Use your voice and words to change your emotions.

Emotions work the same way. They signal you to do something about your current situation. Perhaps, you need to let go of some people, quit your job, or remove a disempowering story that creates suffering in your life.

As Zig Ziglar said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” Remember, what other people can do, you can do as well. Remember also, success is not a limited resource.

Try to see that a thought about a person or event is merely a thought about that person or event. It is the thought about them that makes you feel the way you do. To change the way you feel, change the way you think. ​— ​Vernon Howard, The Power of Your Supermind

The fear of rejection can also lead you to over-dramatize events. If your boss criticized you at work, your brain may see the event as a threat and you now think, “What if I’m fired? What if I can’t find a job quickly enough and my wife leaves me? What about my kids? What if I can’t see them again?” While you are fortunate to have such an effective survival mechanism, it is also your responsibility to separate real threats from imaginary ones.

Each time you tell yourself you’ll do something but don’t, your self-esteem suffers. If you do it repeatedly, the empty promises you make to yourself lose their power. If you know that whatever you promise won't get done, what's the point in making promises to yourself? Breaking promises to yourself will ultimately cause you to stop setting goals.

Always assume that what you’re doing today is what you’ll do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, and so on and so forth.

A life full of excuses is a life full of regrets

Marketers correctly understand people’s need to identify with things. They know people don’t just buy a product, they also purchase the emotions or story attached to the product.

Build the foundations for success one brick at a time. Build them strong so that they won’t collapse at the first obstacle or setback.

The good news is that because you have the power to ‘create’ depression, you also have the power to climb out of it.

Identify your biggest temptations and/or distractions and write them down on the sheet of paper. Then, make sure you put the sheet in a prominent position.

Know what you want. Clarity is power. And vague goals promote vague results.

Imagine if the task was lots of fun, perceived as important, and so easy you couldn’t fail, would you procrastinate?

fact, for the most part, people do not care about you. While it may sound depressing, it’s actually liberating. It means you don’t have to worry so much about what people think of you.

yourself the following questions: What triggered my emotions? What fueled them over the two days? What story was I telling myself? How and why did I get out of my slump? What can I learn from this episode?

Feeling unmotivated or depressed doesn’t make you less of a person than you were a few days or weeks ago when you were happy and enthusiastic. Give yourself a break. Take it easy. Release the pressure and allow yourself to relax for a while.

Another example of mental suffering is procrastination. Have you ever delayed starting a task for days or weeks just to realize it wasn’t a big deal once you’d completed it? I have. What was the most exhausting part, the task itself, or the time you spent worrying about it?

Studies have shown that one of the best predictors of success is the ability to think long term. People who repeatedly focus on where they want to be in the future, make better decisions in the present. They tend to eat healthier food, be more productive at work and save and invest more money than others.

Social media notifications are a great example of how your brain is being hijacked. Whenever you see a notification, you anticipate the reward you’ll receive when clicking on it, which triggers the release of dopamine in your brain. However, this doesn’t make you happy or fulfill you—at least not for long.

Reflect on your life When we’re constantly busy and overstimulated, we sometimes fail to take a step back. We can’t see the forest for the trees. Use your dopamine detox as a way to zoom out. To do so: Reflect on your goals. What goals are you pursuing? Are they the right ones for you? Are you making progress toward them each day? And if you keep doing what you’re doing, will you reach them? Assess how you’re using your time. Are you being truly productive each day? Do you spend time on things that matter? Which activities or projects do you really need to focus on? Which ones do you want to stop doing? Self-reflect. Are you where you want to be in life? What inner work could you do to improve yourself?

The billionaire investor and former senior executive at Facebook, Chamath Palihapitiya, argues that we must rewire our brain to focus on the long term, which starts by removing social media apps from our phones. In his words, such apps, “wire your brain for super-fast feedback.” By receiving constant feedback, whether through likes, comments, or immediate replies to our messages, we condition ourselves to expect fast results with everything we do. And this feeling is certainly reinforced through ads for schemes to help us “get rich quick”, and through cognitive biases (i.e., we only hear about the richest and most successful YouTubers, not about the ones who fail).

I believe that social media, and the internet as a whole, have negatively impacted our ability to both think long-term and to focus deeply on the task in front of us. It is no surprise, therefore, that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, prohibited his children from using phones or tablets—even though his business was to sell millions of them to his customers! The billionaire investor and former senior executive at Facebook, Chamath Palihapitiya, argues that we must rewire our brain to focus on the long term, which starts by removing social media apps from our phones. In his words, such apps, “wire your brain for super-fast feedback.” By receiving constant feedback, whether through likes, comments, or immediate replies to our messages, we condition ourselves to expect fast results with everything we do. And this feeling is certainly reinforced through ads for schemes to help us “get rich quick”, and through cognitive biases (i.e., we only hear about the richest and most successful YouTubers, not about the ones who fail). As we demand more and more stimulation, our focus is increasingly geared toward the short term and our vision of reality becomes distorted. This leads us to adopt inaccurate mental models such as: Success should come quickly and easily, or I don’t need to work hard to lose weight or make money. Ultimately, this erroneous concept distorts our vision of reality and our perception of time. We can feel jealous of people who seem to have achieved overnight success. We can even resent popular YouTubers. Even worse, we feel inadequate. It can lead us to think we are just not good enough, smart enough, or disciplined enough. Therefore, we feel the need to compensate by hustling harder. We have to hurry before we miss the opportunity. We have to find the secret that will help us become successful. And, in this frenetic race, we forget one of the most important values of all: patience. No, watching motivational videos all day long won’t help you reach your goals. But, performing daily consistent actions, sustained over a long period of time will. Staying calm and focusing on the one task in front of you every day will. The point is, to achieve long-term goals in your personal or professional life, you must regain control of your attention and rewire your brain to focus on the long term. To do so, you should start by staying away from highly stimulating activities.

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, by Nathaniel Branden, PhD. Breaking the Chain of Low Self-Esteem, by Marilyn Sorensen, PhD.

Remember that a magnifying glass generates fire by directing the sun's rays to a specific point. Similarly, you create results by turning your focus towards a particular goal. Your concentration is your ultimate weapon.

Every second that passes is gone forever, and nothing in the world can change that.

However, in the end, people will always judge you based on their own model of reality. They’ll project onto you their beliefs and values, and when you don’t live as they think you should live, they’ll judge you for this.

have to admit; I can easily be fooled by my emotions. While I know I am not my emotions, I still give them too much credit and fail to realize they are just temporary visitors. More importantly, I fail to remember they are not me. Emotions always come and go, but I remain. Once the emotional storm has passed, I generally feel like an idiot for having taken my feelings so seriously.

As a result, the more we give our brain room to think, the more it will succeed in convincing us not to do the work.

on.

Your productivity level depends on your energy level and how effectively you can channel your energy toward activities that matter. Below are the different phases of the energy cycle: 1. Protect energy. Your energy is limited, and the best way to protect it is to increase the quality of your sleep, eat more healthily and exercise more regularly. When you fail to do so, your available energy decreases. 2. Channel energy. Energy that is not directed toward a specific purpose will dissipate and be of little value. Once that energy dissipates, you’ll never be able to get it back. Therefore, make sure the way you use your energy today helps you move closer to your ideal future life. To do so, you need a clear vision and a sound strategy. 3. Allocate energy. You don’t have enough energy to do everything at once. According to the 80/20 Principle, twenty percent of your activities will generate eighty percent of your results. Using this principle, make sure you focus on the tasks that absolutely matter. 4. Invest energy. Your energy must be invested otherwise it will be lost. Once you’ve identified your key tasks, put all your energy into them while eliminating any distractions. 5. Refill energy. Take breaks regularly so as to maintain good energy levels. 6. Restart the cycle. You can then restart the cycle all over again the following day. The point is, the more you can preserve energy and channel it toward the achievement of your most important goals, the more productive you’ll become.

By giving words to your thoughts (or worries), you can address them more easily.

Contrary to what many people believe, dopamine is not a pleasure chemical. Simply because an event triggers the release of dopamine doesn’t mean it is something we like or get pleasure from. In fact, when you pay close attention, you’ll notice that as soon as you obtain the expected reward, you’ll often feel empty and unfulfilled.

Sadly, neither your teachers nor your parents taught you how emotions work or how to control them. I find it ironic that just about anything comes with a how-to manual, while your mind doesn’t. You’ve never received an instruction manual to teach you how your mind works and how to use it to better manage your emotions, have you? I haven’t. In fact, until now, I doubt one even existed. What you’ll learn in this book This book is the how-to manual your parents should have given you at birth. It’s the instruction manual you should have received at school. In it, I’ll share everything you need to know about emotions so you can overcome your fears and limitations and become the type of person you want to be. More specifically, this book will help you: Understand what emotions are and how they impact your life Understand how emotions form and how you can use them for your personal growth Identify negative emotions that control your life and learn to overcome them

The management consultant, Peter Drucker, once said that efficiency is doing things right while effectiveness is doing the right things. There is no point doing things right if those things don’t move you closer to your goals.

simply adopting a few new, and positive, daily habits can lead to dramatic improvements in the long term. Changing two to three daily habits is usually all it takes to achieve almost any goal,

What single assumption you currently hold prevents you from living the life you want?

it is also your responsibility to separate real threats from imaginary ones. If you don’t, you’ll experience unnecessary pain and worry that will negatively impact the quality of your life.

Are you running the day or is the day running you?

La soledad no se cura con la compañía humana. La soledad se cura entrando en contacto con la realidad y entendiendo por qué no necesitamos a otro.

Successful people have to decline requests most of the time. And this is one of the reasons they are so successful: they have clear priorities, well-defined values, and a specific vision.

The bottom line is this: Your attitude towards life influences your happiness, not what happens to you.

Too many of us are addicted to our problems. Instead of letting go, we complain, we play the victim, we blame other people, or we discuss our issues without doing anything to solve them. To reduce this mental suffering, we must refuse to interpret our emotions in a negative and disempowering way.

Whenever you experience negative emotions, watch for emotions that give you more energy. So-called negative emotions like anger can help you overcome even more disempowering emotions, like hopelessness. Only you know how you feel. Therefore, if anger feels better, accept it.

You can’t attract thoughts that are out of sync with how you feel at any given time.

Confident people deposit positive thoughts in their mind each day. They celebrate their small wins and treat themselves with compassion and respect. Naturally, they expect good things to happen. On the other hand, people with low self-esteem bombard their mind with disempowering thoughts. They discard their accomplishments as ‘no big deal’ and fail to recognize their strengths and the positive intent behind their actions. No wonder they feel unworthy. (For more information read section, ‘Not being good enough.’)

The point is, whenever you offer your time, you give away a chunk of your life, and time is a hugely valuable commodity. Is it worth your time? Shouldn’t you spend your time doing something you judge more important?

Remember, what you do first thing in the morning matters far more than you think. Just one tiny decision can have a dramatic effect on your day’s productivity.

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

Our bodies change our minds, our minds change our behavior, and our behavior changes our outcomes.

You’re not sad, depressed, jealous or angry, you are what witnesses these emotions. You are what remains after these temporary feelings fade away.

The ego refers to the self-identity you’ve constructed throughout your life. How was this identity created? Put simply, the ego was created through your thoughts and, as a mind-created identity, has no concrete reality. Events that happen to you bear no meaning in themselves. You give them meaning only through your interpretation of those events. Additionally, you accept things about yourself because people told you to do so. What’s more, you identify with your name, your age, your religion, your political belief, or your occupation in a similar way.

No, watching motivational videos all day long won’t help you reach your goals. But, performing daily consistent actions, sustained over a long period of time will. Staying calm and focusing on the one task in front of you every day will.

A random thought arises. You identify with that thought. This identification creates an emotional reaction. As you keep identifying with that thought, the related emotion grows stronger until it becomes a core emotion.

The mind always seeks to deny the Now and to escape from it. In other words, the more you are identified with your mind, the more you suffer. Or you may put it like this: the more you are able to honor and accept the Now, the more you are free of pain, of suffering—and free of the egoic mind.

For example, let’s say you felt sad for a couple of days, ask yourself the following questions: What triggered my emotions? What fueled them over the two days? What story was I telling myself? How and why did I get out of my slump? What can I learn from this episode? Answering these questions will be invaluable and will vastly help you deal with similar issues in the future.

Remember this: the way you interpret emotions, as well as the blame game you engage in, creates suffering, not the emotions themselves.

Negative emotions often serve a purpose.

No matter how mentally tough you are, you’ll still experience sadness, grief or depression in your life—hopefully not at the same time, and not continually. At times you’ll feel disappointed, betrayed, insecure, resentful or ashamed. You’ll doubt yourself and doubt your ability to be the person you want to be. But that’s okay because emotions come, but, more importantly, they go.

If you’re like me, you may not want to bother people with your problems. Perhaps you feel bad because they’re busy, or perhaps you think you’re not important enough to take up other people’s time. If so, this may be a sign that you don’t value yourself highly enough.

Make unwanted behaviors harder to engage in by adding friction. Make desired behaves easier to engage in by reducing friction. Implement a simple morning routine to calm your mind and start your day with a low level of stimulation.

The hardest thing about depression is that it is addictive. It begins to feel uncomfortable not to be depressed. You feel guilty for feeling happy. ​— ​Pete Wentz, musician.

By receiving constant feedback, whether through likes, comments, or immediate replies to our messages, we condition ourselves to expect fast results with everything we do. And this feeling is certainly reinforced through ads for schemes to help us “get rich quick”, and through cognitive biases (i.e., we only hear about the richest and most successful YouTubers, not about the ones who fail).

Interpretation + identification + repetition = strong emotion

the most important truths in this world: you are not your emotions. Your emotions will come and they will go.

Jealousy may lead to some of the following behaviors: Trying to control your partner: You may check your partner’s phone or emails or prevent them from going out to see their friends. Testing your partner to see whether he or she loves you: You may expect your partner to behave in a certain way and when he or she doesn’t, you feel betrayed. This stems from the belief that you shouldn’t have to tell your partner what you want or need. He or she should be able to guess. Imagining things that aren’t there: You make up all sorts of stories in your mind by extrapolating facts.

What’s the fastest way to achieve my goal? If I were lazy and wanted to do as little work as possible, what would I do to achieve my goal quickly and effectively? What would Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk do to achieve the same goal? What if this goal is not the right one for me? What if there’s a goal that better meets my needs and is more closely aligned with my values? Can I reframe my goal? If so, how?

Once the initial excitement wears off, you’ll move on to crave the next exciting thing. This phenomenon is known as ‘hedonic adaptation.

Exhibiting a superiority complex. This hides the fear of not being good enough.

As Confucius said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

Religion is a perfect illustration of the dangers of excessive attachment to beliefs. The ego will use any belief to strengthen its identity, whether these beliefs are religious, political, or metaphysical.

Nowadays, being rejected often carries little or no consequence to your long-term survival. You can be hated by the entire world and still have a job, a roof and plenty of food on the table, yet, your brain remains programmed to perceive rejection as a threat to your survival.